AOL Blocking E-mail from Critics?

AOL is the target of fresh criticism this week after it was discovered the company was bouncing e-mails from the Web site of a political action group opposing its certified e-mail program. However, a spokesperson for AOL says the problem resulted from a "technical glitch."

A group of organizations including group MoveOn.org are protesting the Internet service provider's move to use Goodmail's Certified Mail technology.

In exchange for paying a small fee of a quarter of a cent to one cent per message, the sender would be guaranteed delivery and the e-mail would be marked as legitimate in the header. Participation is not mandatory, however companies who don't pay will receive no assurance that their e-mails are getting through.

Despite support from across the industry, a number of organizations scoffed at the idea, calling it the creation of a "two tier Internet."

About 300 people complained to those running the "Dear AOL" petition that e-mails with the Web site "www.dearaol.com" were being bounced back with a message saying the message had "failed permanently." While the activists claimed this was evidence of censorship, AOL said it was due to an issue with the e-mail system blocking some Web links in e-mails.

Certain Web sites were being incorrectly labeled as spam or scams, which included dearaol.com. AOL spokesperson Nicholas Graham said that the company has delivered tens of millions of e-mails containing that Web link in the past, and would continue doing so now that the issue has been resolved.

However, some people aren't buying that explanation. "Left to their own devices, AOL will always put its own self interest ahead of the public interest," said Timothy Karr, campaign director of Free Press, one of the petition's signees.

"If AOL is willing to censor the flow of information to silence their critics, today, how could anyone trust that they will preserve the free and open internet down the road?" he questioned.

Dear AOL's petition has been signed by over 350,000 individuals and 600 organizations since February.